


All For One (And One For All)

by bluebeholder



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Character Study, Gen, Male Character of Color, Post-Movie 2: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Team Up, ragtag band of misfits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 17:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17492276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebeholder/pseuds/bluebeholder
Summary: After the Paris Incident, Yusuf Kama must decide his next move in the fight against Grindelwald. He visits Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in order to meet with Albus Dumbledore. Much more importantly, he meets a magizoologist, a Muggle, and a Maledictus.It's entirely possible that the fate of the world may rest in their hands.





	All For One (And One For All)

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't the fic I was hoping to write for the calendar, but still. I'm happy to give some time to characters from the new film! (And since I'm writing another fic for the calendar later on, you can rest assured that the much longer fic will appear then.)
> 
> A little open-ended, but I like it. :)

From the other side of the desk, Dumbledore watches him with a keen and calculating gaze. It’s masked by charm and friendliness, but Yusuf is not so easily fooled. He’s met many a dangerous wizard in his life and he will make no mistake—Albus Dumbledore is perhaps the most dangerous of them all.

Though Yusuf is modestly sure he could give the man a run for his money.

“So,” Dumbledore says after a long pause, “you want to join the fight against Grindelwald.”

“Let me correct you,” Yusuf says. He smiles, just a bit. “I have already joined. Now the question is whether or not I will fight on your terms or on my own.”

Dumbledore returns the smile. “Fair enough, Mr. Kama.” He folds his hands on the desk. “I know very little about you, which I have to confess is surprising. A man who made an Unbreakable Vow of murder, hunting the lost son of one of England’s most famous wizards—a son who then turned out to be the most notorious Obscurial in recent history—who has now stepped from the shadows and declared a personal crusade against Gellert Grindelwald?”

“Yes, that is me,” Yusuf says. He leans back, arms on the armrests of the chair. “If the great Albus Dumbledore knows so little about me, then I have done my job well.”

At that, Dumbledore laughs. He stands up from the chair and walks to the window, gazing out over the Hogwarts grounds. “I have to say that I trust you,” he says. “It’s very hard to get Newt’s good recommendation. To have Newt _and_ his brother vouch for your character says a great deal about you.”

“Aside from the Unbreakable Vow, I have always tried to be a good man,” Yusuf says. He shrugs a little. “Even the Vow was made for the sake of my family.”

“And it’s for your family’s sake that you plan to fight Grindelwald,” Dumbledore says, turning around. He leans against the windowsill, hands in his pockets. “Even though you barely knew Leta Lestrange at all.”

Yusuf looks away. “I wish I had known her better,” he says.

After a brief moment, Dumbledore says quietly, “I sympathize.”

“Have you lost someone, Professor?”

“My sister. A long time ago. I wish I had known her better.”

They’re quiet for a while. It’s an oddly comfortable quiet. They share a familiarity with tragedy, a kinship created by a loss that cannot truly be explained, only understood. And now they do understand each other. Yusuf is certain, after that brief exchange, that this interview was only meant to confirm Yusuf’s character and better establish his motives. With any luck, Dumbledore will understand, and they will be able to move forward.

Suddenly Dumbledore claps his hands. “Well then,” he says, “that’s all the business I really have. I can’t, you see, give you orders or information.”

“Oh?” Yusuf asks, rising to his feet and straightening his jacket.

Dumbledore smiles, still leaning on the windowsill. “I’m not a general,” he says, “no matter what people like to believe about me.”

“I see,” Yusuf says. He colors the words with every ounce of skepticism he possesses.

“Now, I can say that I have friends who share your common interest,” Dumbledore says, straightening up and coming back around the desk. He walks with Yusuf to the door of the office, hands still in his pockets.

“You’re going to tell me to pay a visit to Newt, is that it?” Yusuf raises his brows at Dumbledore as they pause before the door.

Dumbledore’s eyes positively twinkle. “I said no such thing,” he says. “If you happen to run into Newt, tell him I said hello, and perhaps…ask him to show you his suitcase.”

He’s guided out of the castle by one of the school’s prefects. Yusuf is deep in thought as he exits the castle, not really paying attention to where he’s going. From here he’ll walk to Hogsmeade and pick up a Portkey back to London. His mind, though, isn’t on the trip to the village. It’s on where he’ll go after London.

Despite Dumbledore’s veiled advice, Yusuf has always been an independent actor. He spent years honing his skills as an investigator, as a wizard, traveling the world in search of the right tools to fulfill his Vow. It was unceasing work. Work he’d been more than glad to do on his own.

His next move will, of course, not be to challenge Grindelwald. No, Yusuf’s slowly-forming plan is to continue the path he’d already been walking. The Lestrange family has deep roots through all the old families of the wizarding world. Yusuf has uncovered many of their secrets. He’s already on the trail to Grindelwald despite never being interested in that fight. Since young Credence departed with Grindelwald, Yusuf sees no reason why his knowledge should be useless now. Perhaps—

“Excuse me!”

A voice jolts him from his contemplations. Yusuf looks up to see Newt Scamander practically Apparating into existence beside him. “Mr. Scamander,” Yusuf says, smiling.

“Just Newt, please.”

The magizoologist falls into step beside Yusuf and, together, they stroll down the path. Newt is not, Yusuf notices, carrying his infamous suitcase. He keeps giving Yusuf sidelong looks, as if he’s about to speak, but doesn’t.

About halfway to Hogsmeade, Yusuf comments, “It’s a nice day.”

“Yes, lovely, isn’t it?” Newt asks softly. He sticks his hands in his pockets, gazing up at the cool blue sky. He’s been very sober since Paris; Yusuf, never a man for sharing his deep feelings, appreciates that Newt is the sort given to quiet grief. He places no demands on others to share his pain.

“Are you going anywhere in particular?” Yusuf asks.

“Well, I was mostly hoping to talk to you,” Newt says. He looks sideways at Yusuf. “Your interview with Dumbledore went well?”

“As far as I can tell,” Yusuf says. He decides that there’s no harm in at least momentarily following the trail Dumbledore had laid for him. “He said to tell you hello—and that I should ask to see inside your suitcase?”

Newt smiles, a very brief thing. “Of course he did,” he says. “The Professor can be a little bit predictable.”

“Is that an invitation to your suitcase or no?” Yusuf asks, turning a wry look on Newt.

“Of course it is,” Newt says. “It’s down at the Hog’s Head—with some friends.”

Ah, there it is. With some friends. As they near Hogsmeade, walking in companionable silence, Yusuf conjectures as to _which_ friends these might be. Theseus Scamander? Auror Goldstein? Someone else, one of Dumbledore’s other men?

But no: waiting for them at a table in the Hog’s Head is Jacob Kowalski and the circus girl Nagini, each with a butterbeer in front of them. Jacob stands to shake Yusuf’s hand. Nagini, giving Yusuf a wary look, does not. Yusuf sits beside Jacob, with Newt on his other. No one pays them any mind as a house-elf brings two more butterbeers to the table.

“Is this some sort of war council?” Yusuf asks.

“Not really,” Jacob says. “It’s more of a club.”

“A _club_?” Nagini asks.

Jacob shrugs. “I don’t know what else to call us,” he says. “Saying we’re Dumbledore’s Army seems a little too dramatic.”

Newt clears his throat. “What we are,” he says, “is a group of people very worried about our friends and family.”

“Of course,” Yusuf says. Images of blue fire flash through his mind and he shivers.

“Let’s just get to the point,” Jacob says. The Muggle, who always looked rather guileless to Yusuf, has a hard edge about his expression now. “The Ministry of Magic, MACUSA—they ain’t moving fast enough to deal with Grindelwald. He’s got Queenie—”

“And Credence,” Nagini says quietly.

“—and Credence,” Jacob says with a nod. “Newt’s got leads that Dumbledore gave him. We three are going to follow them.”

Yusuf looks at the three people around the table. A magizoologist, a Maledictus, a Muggle. No odder group could be found on the whole of the globe. “You want me to join you?”

“Yes,” Newt says. “You’re an incredible wizard. And you know things. You’re an investigator, you know how to get around without being noticed, you have information and secrets no other person could possibly know. We need you.”

While he takes a measured sip of butterbeer, Yusuf thinks furiously. “Did Dumbledore put you up to asking me?” he asks at last.

“No,” Nagini says. She gazes at him steadily, completely unblinking. It’s unnerving, but then again she can transform into a snake. Perhaps it should be expected. “I did.”

“Why?”

“Because I think you might know Credence better than any of us,” Nagini says. She bites her lip for a moment. “I thought I knew him, but I didn’t. You do. I smelled you in the audience the night we broke out and I’d been smelling you for weeks before that but I didn’t realize who you were, really, until we met in the catacombs. You’ve been tracking him his whole life. You learned everything about him—you knew more about him than he knew.”

“Credence isn’t leading his own journey anymore,” Yusuf points out.

Nagini gives him half a smile. “No, he’s not,” she says. “But if you could track Credence, if you could uncover his whole past like you did, then I’m pretty sure you could do the same with Grindelwald.”

There’s silence at the table for a moment. Yusuf thinks about it. He has so many disparate threads of the past, a whole locked vault full of papers and journals, his own suitcase with an Undetectable Extension Charm hiding his most important discoveries. And yes, he knows how to investigate, to find the secrets that the world would prefer to keep hidden.

“Perhaps I will work with you,” he says slowly. He looks around at his three companions and smiles. “After all, a journey like this is better taken with friends.”

Jacob offers Yusuf his hand, and Yusuf shakes it again. “Let’s get started,” Jacob says. He turns to Newt, who’s smiling again. “Which reminds me. Where _are_ we getting started?”

“Well,” Newt says, “as far as I know…”

Yusuf sits back and lets Newt’s lecture wash over him. He drinks his (delightful) butterbeer and waits for his turn to speak. It’s good, Yusuf thinks, to be here. Looking around now, at this odd trio of people brought together in this common purpose, Yusuf thinks that he could be happy like this. Traveling with them. Working with them. Fighting beside them.

For the first time in a very long time, Yusuf doesn’t have to be alone.


End file.
